The Bright Side
by Mrs.Snape7
Summary: When Harry Potter is haunted in his sleep by a dreadful flashback-like nightmare from his younger years his Godfather comes to the rescue. But when the words he screams in his dreams all match up to the story, Sirius knows his Godson is being abused by the Dursleys. But how can a convicted mass murderer gain custody of a child? Set in the Order of the Phoenix.
1. Chapter 1: Abused

**I DON'T OWN ANYTHING.**

**Did you see that? I own nothing of Harry Potter and I most certainly do not make a profit off of this, I don't think I could if I wanted to.**

**Please review, I'd really like to know how you feel, good or bad. I want to know if I should continue or if I'm just writing for my own entertainment.**

**Well, that's enough of my blah-blah-blah. Here we go!**

The Bright Side

Chapter 1: Abused

"_Please, Uncle Vernon," whimpered young Harry Potter, cowering from his whale-sized Uncle. "I-I swear I didn't mean to knock over Dudley's soda," his bright green eyes, looked up at his Uncle's walrus face. "P-please," he cried as the man removed his belt. "I d-didn't even touch the glass! It…it just fell over…it was like magic."_

_ Oh no, Harry knew he had done it now. His eyes filled with tears as the belt struck down on him, hitting his stomach and chest with great force. The water fell down the familiar tracks and Harry only hoped Aunt Petunia would walk in and come up with some excuse of why she needed Vernon to come down to the kitchen. She never tried to stop it, but she would try to distract his Uncle, as if she felt horrible about this but didn't have the courage to speak._

_ "ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME, BOY?" His torturers face was red, purple, any unnatural color to show his anger. "YOU…WILL NEVER…SHOW THIS…FREAKISHNESS…IN MY…HOUSE…AGAIN!" The belt struck Harry at every pause._

_ It was always like this. Harry was called a freak for something he did. But he didn't know why. It just happened that way. Odd things happened around him without reason. His teacher's hair turned blue and of course Harry was blamed. Dudley's and his Gang was chasing after Harry, probably to beat him to death and suddenly, WOW, he was on the roof. Nothing ever had a reason. Stuff just happened, like…like magic._

_ And Harry was always punished for it._

"Harry!" A loud and urgent voice broke throw his drowsy, in-sleep mind. "Harry, wake up!"

_The boy flinched. He must have slept in; Uncle Vernon would surely punish him. Why did he have to be off work today? Aunt Petunia would've only punished him with extra chores like garden work or feeding Dudley more than the usual foods so he'd have to wash the dishes over and over again._

_ "I'm sorry, Uncle," Harry whimpered, slightly curling up as he expected to be hit._

_ He kept his eyes closed and lowered his sobs. Uncle Vernon whipped him only yesterday, why again today? The beatings were never this often._

"Wake up, Harry," the voice came softer this time yet Harry still recoiled, refusing to open his eyes.

_"P-please, Uncle," he knew the tears were yet to come and he'd be beaten just for that. Oh well, he may as well get it all over with. _

And so Harry Potter opened his eyes, not as the whimpering young child but as a boy of sixteen. He was The-Boy-Who-Lived, strong enough to outwit Voldemort yet scared by a fat muggle. How pathetic. And the worst of all, his Godfather, Sirius Black, the convicted Mass Murder whom supposedly ratted out his parents to Voldemort (but didn't!) was standing before him with the most worried look possible.

"H-Harry," Sirius stuttered, as if not knowing what to say. "Are you alright?" He asked as he slid the boy's glasses on his pale and reddened face.

The sixteen-year old nodded, not trusting his voice just then. Somehow he could tell his Godfather sensed what his dream was about. Had he been talking in his sleep?

"How long?" The man's face looked livid, horrified that his Godson was abused.

Harry blushed, feeling shameful. "Forever, I guess," he shrugged his shoulders as his voice croaked. "But it did stop for a while when I got my Hogwarts letter," the boy was relieved, finally able to tell someone. He wanted to, he surely did but he felt weak and cowardly. Who would believe him anyway?

Sirius' face paled. "I'll kill them," he growled with clenched teeth. "Why haven't you told anyone this, Harry? Have they done this any since then?"

Harry buried his face in the pillows, glasses still on and nearly breaking, just trying to ignore the question.

"Harry, come on, Harry," whispered Sirius, rubbing his back in attempt to calm him. "You've got to tell me, please." The man frowned when no response came from the child. "How about we go downstairs, we'll have breakfast and then we'll talk later? Just us? Alright?"

He sighed when the answer he wanted didn't come. "Come on, Harry. If you want you can tell Dumbledore or someone other than me. I just want to help you."

Green eyes met his again but they weren't filled with the normal happiness or even anger. It wasn't fear or hurt but it was confusion. It was as if the boy had never known a parent's love before. But he didn't speak.

"Come on, Harry," he practically begged. "I owe this to James. I've got to watch out for you like he would have. No one is here, everyone went out to Diagon Alley but I told them not to wake you because I wanted someone here with me," Sirius put a hand on his shoulder. "If you tell me, it will help you. I can get you out of those filthy," he paused as if thinking better of what he was going to say. "You can come and live with me."

"Really?" His eyes brightened with new hope. Dumbledore had said no before that he needed to stay with his living family because it was the only way he would be safe. But how could he say no when Harry was being abused by his own family?

Suddenly Harry found himself in Sirius' arms and he was crying, not from the dream but these were happy tears because he knew Dumbledore would find a way to let him live with his Godfather. Maybe they could even prove he was innocent and they could be a normal, happy family.

"You're always welcome here, Harry. I'll never turn you away," Sirius comforted him. "But you're going to have to tell us what those filthy beasts did to you."

"Thank you, Sirius," Harry smiled for the first time that morning. "You're my only family."


	2. Chapter 2: Beaten

**I STILL DON'T OWN ANYTHING ABOUT OR RELATED TO HARRY POTTER.**

**Aren't the Caps lock letters annoying? Anyways…**

**: ) Yay! Three reviews! Thanks so much, you guys are soooooo awesome! Oh, it won't be an evil Dumbledore fic. (I can't even imagine it being like that) Oh, as for my dear second reviewer, most of your questions will be answered in the chapter and you'll just have to wait and see for the rest…(evil grin) Thanks for reviewing to each of you!**

The Bright Side

Chapter 2: Beaten

Harry Potter slowly sat down before the gigantic plate of delicious food piled up on the table. Sirius began to eat opposite to him, so Harry helped himself to a large mound of bacon and eggs, slowly chewing on bits of toast, knowing the moment he was done his Godfather would asking and asking questions until he nearly exploded.

"Bloody hell, did they starve you as well?" Sirius muttered, trying to be funny but disappointing himself as well. Harry didn't answer, just stared down at the ground and his feet, already seeing the widened eyes and pale face of the convicted murderer.

"I'm fine Sirius," the boy dared to say after a few moments of nothing but the clinks of a glass full of pumpkin juice being set upon the table and the scrapes of forks and knifes on plates. "It really isn't as bad as you think," he added.

"Harry," Sirius said softly as he slid his chair back and walked over to the boy. He sat down in the seat aside him and spoke calmly. "No matter what the case may be, abuse, verbal or physical, isn't right at all." His Godfather took a deep breath, sighing as he leaned on the chair. "I don't want you to get hurt, because I love you like you are my own son."

The boy smiled at his Godfather, knowing all Sirius wanted was to help him. But Harry just hated all of the attention. Harry didn't want to be pitied; Harry didn't want to be bombarded with questions. He already had all of this, abuse or not. He wished he could just be Harry, not the Boy-Who-Lived.

"I don't want you to feel like I'm forcing you to tell me this," Sirius breathed heavily. "But, Harry, it will be so much better if you do. And if you'd rather tell Dumbledore or Remus or anyone it's alright with me."

"I-I want to tell you," the boy looked up at him. "You already know, anyways."

Sirius gave a small smile and nodded slightly. "Is it only your Uncle who abuses you? Does your Aunt ever…? He trailed off, and Harry knew Sirius was beyond livid with the Dursleys.

"It's only him," said Harry, not even saying the whale-like man's name. "Aunt Petunia knows but she really doesn't do much to stop it unless she can think of an excuse for him to stop."

"What exactly does he do? Where does he hit you?" The man's face was pale white like a ghost again as he continued with the ongoing questions. "With his hands? Or a belt? Or…"

"It's usually a belt," he muttered shyly, barely audible to Sirius. "Sometimes he tells me to turn around so he can hit my back, but I usually don't and I end up getting hit on my chest or my stomach."

"Oh, Harry," the boy couldn't even imagine someone looking so horrified. The look on Sirius' face was heartbreaking, like the cruelest thing in the world had just happened. "I will kill them if they ever lay another hand on you again. I'm so sorry, Harry, I should have realized sooner."

"It's not your fault, Sirius," whispered Harry in a low voice. "It's mine, I was the one who never told anyone," he admitted sheepishly.

"No, Harry. No, never think that," Sirius put his hands gently on his Godson's shoulders. "It's hard to tell someone, I know how it feels." Harry's mouth dropped open when he understood. His face was enough to tell Sirius the question he was aching to ask. "My parents hit me, too," he whispered. "But they, mostly my father, were a bit original with their punishments."

"W-What did they do to you?"

"They used knives to cut my skin; sometimes they would use illegal curses like the Crusiatus," Sirius looked Harry in the eyes to get his last point across. "And…and I-I never told anyone, not until they were both dead, when the problem was over."

Harry didn't even know what to say. Uncle Vernon, never did anything so cruel, of course Vernon was a magic-hating muggle so the curses like that or any curses were far out of the question, but still, the worst Harry ever had to suffer was just the harsh belt beating.

"I'm fine though," Sirius explained to him. "And I'm not going to let something like that happen to you, James and Lily would be rolling in their graves," he groaned just thinking about their deaths. "I'm going to get you out of there, Harry. As soon as the Weasleys return with everyone else we can start."

"Start what?" The boy asked with growing confusion.

"We'll let Dumbledore and a few others know, we have to," he sighed again when Harry pouted at him. "It's going to be okay, alright, little Prongs," Sirius ruffled his already messy hair. "Someone needs to go to the," he grit his teeth, and Harry could tell it wasn't something nice that Sirius wanted to say. "Dursleys," he bit his lip as not to send out thousands of insults. "And there's the matter with paperwork and stuff, Remus is the one for that, he'll be better with that stuff," muttered Sirius. "Anyways…by the time you'd usually leave Hogwarts and return home, I'll be the one to pick you up at Kings Cross."

Harry hugged Sirius, overcome with happiness. Sirius would be the father he had always wanted, dreamed of, but never had. And somehow Harry knew it was going to be okay, he'd have a family and they'd somehow prove Sirius innocent, a father-like figure in his life to help him and care for him in life as he grew up. Though in the wizard world, Harry would technically be an adult at seventeen, less than a year from now. It wouldn't be long, but it would mean the world to Harry.


End file.
